Americans generally eat better at home than away from home. At home they are in charge of their food preparation and portion size, which enables them to better manage their calorie intake. This holds true for meals and snacks. In fact, better-for-you ready-to-eat (RTE) snack foods are up 14% since 2006, while sweet snacks fell 6% during the same time frame, according to NPD’s ongoing snacking research, SnackTrack.
But it’s a different story when it comes to away-from-home (AFH) snacking. Through NPD’s continual consumption research, we have seen shifts not only in when people snack, but also (and most important) what fulfills the on-the-go snack occasion.
AFH snacking is a sizable occasion. Snacking accounts for 18% of total AFH visits, capturing more than 11 billion visits and $45 billion in sales in the past year. Morning snack has grown share of visits in the past five years, primarily due to the growth of specialty-coffee use between breakfast and lunch.
While U.S. consumers may claim to have good intentions to eat healthy, evidence suggests otherwise—at least at commercial foodservice outlets. In reality, the top motivations for grabbing a snack on the go are convenience (I need it fast/easy), loyalty (habitual use) and indulgence (I want a treat/reward). Seeking a treat/reward is three times more important as a motivation for a snack visit than it is for non-snacking meal occasions. Consumers seeking “healthy choices” account for only 1% of all snack occasions.
Clearly, seeking to eat “healthy” during an AFH snack occasion is not a high priority. This provides multiple opportunities for convenience stores to be the destination of choice for AFH snacking occasions. Why do we say this?
Gulping and Grazing
First, beverages are the most popular snack item and are included in three-quarters of all snacking occasions. No other retail destination has a broader variety of beverages than c-stores. While carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) dominate afternoon and evening occasions, coffee drinks top the list at the morning snack visit. Nearly 50% of morning snacks included coffee in the most recent year, up from 42% in 2008.
Although there are some who still opt for a small black coffee to satisfy their needs, many are tempted by a 500-calorie, 20-fat-gram frozen coffee treat with extra whipped cream on top. And then there’s the Beast, which Maverik offered a few years ago: eggs, bacon, ham, hash browns and sausage between halves of a glazed doughnut.
Second, with the continued growth of grazing, we also see a shift in what’s consumed, particularly for afternoon and evening snacks. While indulgent coffee drinks, candy and ice cream are still popular, consumers are more often opting for main-dish items typically eaten at lunch or dinner: Twenty percent of snack occasions include a sandwich, which is on par with incidence of CSDs. French fries and Mexican food follow in terms of importance.
For c-stores to remain a top snacking destination, it is imperative they expand their menu offerings to more closely resemble that of traditional fast-food outlets. Some chains are already doing so, such as Casey’s, Wawa, Sheetz, Kwik Trip and Cumberland Farms. All of these food-forward chains have determined that there is more profit to be earned on food and beverage sales than on gasoline and cigarettes.
The C-Store Advantage
Nearly one in four AFH snacks source from a convenience store, with another 60% coming from competitive foodservice outlets.
Convenience stores have two clear advantages over traditional quick-service restaurants (QSRs). First, while QSR traffic peaks at main meal times, consumers visit c-stores throughout the day. This is appealing to the growing number of U.S. consumers who prefer five to six mini meals vs. the traditional three meals per day. As foodservice continues to evolve in the convenience channel, food-forward retailers will offer better/more prepared/made-to-order fare, as well as packaged foods and general merchandise. Whether it’s a meal or a snack isn’t as important as offering consumers what they want when they want it.
Second, beverages are key components of c-store snack occasions, included in nearly 80% of c-store snack visits. This incidence rate is nine points higher than beverage incidence in traditional QSRs. Beverage variety clearly differentiates c-stores from the competition. This can be true of both cold/iced beverages and hot beverages as well.
So when we ponder if c-stores need to offer only “healthy” offerings to enhance their reputation as a snacking destination, we find the answer is no. The majority of consumers have more important motivations for their snacking visits than seeking out healthy options, specifically the search for a treat/reward.
The trends suggest a menu or product mix including more indulgent items would provide a greater customer draw than a mix of items that are perceived only to be primarily healthy options.
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